Visit the Castle Engarran for the weekend national parks & gardens [ August 30th, 2010 ] Posted in » wine tour

castle-engarranOn the occasion of the weekend National parks and gardens on 5 and 6 June, the Castle of Engarran opened the doors of his 3-acre garden in the French fans. A walk inside the property where the resplendent beauty of his “madness” of the eighteenth century.
This visit was also an opportunity to explore the museum at this grape castle while tasting the delicious wines of the proposed by the castle.

The Engarran: symbol of Montpellier follies.

A folly is a wealthy suburban home craft. In the Engarran castle on a hill covered with vineyards, lies in its park, the Engarran, most feminine, the more baroque and best preserved of Montpellier follies.
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Beautiful Kirkland Ranch Winery

kirkland_wineryYour ordinary winery does not have its own cattle brand, nor a herd of Black Angus roaming the hillsides above the vineyards, but then, Kirkland Ranch Winery is not your ordinary winery. When the Kirkland brothers, Larry and Lonnie, purchased the 2000-acre spread that was part of General Mariano Vallejo’s original Rancho Soscol land grant in 1978 the primary crop on their Rocking LK Ranch was cattle. Grapes joined the mix in 1985 at the suggestion of Larry’s daughter, Chris, and additional vines were planted until, today, there are 138 acres of vineyard containing Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Syrah, Sangiovese, and Nebbiolo.
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July 29th, 2010 | Leave a Comment

A good wine for the holidays

goodwineThere is a winemaker in the Russian River valley who is marking her ninth Pinot Noir vintage this year, and she seems to have charmed this recalcitrant grape into allowing her to produce wines that sell out as soon as the waiting world hears another is on the way. Eugenia Keegan, owner and winemaker of Keegan Cellars is the person whose name is on the label of these Pinot Noirs, and that’s all that many people need to know before heading to their favorite wine shop.
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June 23rd, 2010 | Leave a Comment

1999 Pinot Noir Yountville, Napa Valley

1999-pinot-noir-yountville-napa-valleyVINTAGE: 2000

APPELLATION: Yountville, Napa Valley

COMPOSITION: 100% Pinot Noir

WINEMAKING: Small hand punched lots aged 14 months in French Oak barrels (80% new).
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May 31st, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Champagne - important wine

champagneAppellation d’Origine - Appellation.
The Champagne is the northernmost and one of the most important wine regions of France, because it produces the sparkling wine of the same name (white or pink), prepared by the traditional method in the region.

This town is situated about 200 km from Paris, are 34,000 hectares, of which 31 000 are cultivated. The wines must comply with conditions laid down for entitlement to designation of origin, such as:

  • come from grapes of the varieties Pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay,
  • make its second fermentation (using the methode Champenoise), ie the foam has to occur within the same bottle in the second fermentation.

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May 16th, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Oregon Wines

oregon-winesYou might not have had the chance, or even thought about looking to the beautiful Pacific Northwest for your last purchase of wine. Well it is understandable. If you are not from the area you might not know that there are 153 wineries in Oregon producing quality wine, and trying to get the word out to you and the rest of the world. Many wine writers have talked about “Discovering the wines of Oregon”. Well maybe we are still busy discovering the wines of Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Spain, New York and South Africa. That’s all fine and well, just drop all of them for now and lets look at Pinot Noir country. (o.k. Chard country too)
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March 29th, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Shiraz Wines

Shiraz is Happenin

shiraz-winesIt is a happenin’ wine varietal now and it has been for the last five years in the retail sector (it has won over many California Cabernet, Zin, and Merlot drinkers) and on fine wine lists nation wide. Shiraz is the most widely planted red grape in Australia and the selection offered to the world market has been growing over the last few years. Shiraz is a great wine grape. Get to know it if you enjoy red wine, and get used to talking about Australia when you are talking wine with your wine-appreciating friends. If you have any; wine drinking friends that is.

Shiraz is a nice blackberryish, plummy, full-to-medium bodied, peppery, dark purple mouth filling, intensely interesting red wine. It is age-worthy in many cases but mostly ready to drink on arrival. Shiraz gets a lot of coverage now and I think it will keep emerging as one of the main players fighting for shelf space in the next ten years.
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March 29th, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Turkey Day Wines

turkey-day-wines-2It’s that time of year again folks, so feel free to read this article and take from it what you can. This is one huge meal that always gets a lot of people wandering the wine aisle’s trying to pick out that one perfect wine. Don’t do it. Don’t think that there is one perfect wine. There are hundreds and hundreds. This is a feast that can accommodate so many wines that I could walk blindfolded through my wine store and come up with wines that match.

If you try the blindfolded thing just bring someone along to steer you clear of the wine displays, and if you try it out with your eyes wide open, give these varietals a look. Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. So you are getting the picture, right. Lots of options and nothing to stress out about.

The reason all these wines can work is because they all have something different to offer the main course and all the accompaniments.
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February 8th, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The Mountains, not the Bayou

the-mountains-not-the-bayouWhen we say “Fogarty”, you think of a reefer-smoking hippie singing Born on the Bayou, right? Well stop it. As much as we love doobie hittin’ singers from CCR (John Fogerty, see they aren’t even spelled the same), we love winery-owning doctors named Thomas Fogarty even more. Why? Because the good doctor has a winery located up in the Santa Cruz Mountains that puts out a plethora of good juice, and it’s all handcrafted by a damngood and seasoned wine making all-star; Mr. Michael Martella.

The Thomas Fogarty Winery and Vineyard is located about 2000 feet up in them there hills and has been there since 1981. The Estate sits on 325 acres, with about 25 acres dedicated to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and small lots of Merlot and Sangiovese. Right now the good doctor and Mr. Martella are producing 13 different wines and case production is rather limited on many of their offerings and reaches the 3500+ case boundary with just a few of their wines.
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February 6th, 2010 | 1 Comment

Wine A Steal of a Deal

wine-a-steal-of-a-dealSensual Liquid from Anderson Valley
Navarro Vineyards
“Method of Ancienne”
1999 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir

Travel north up the California Coast, past Sonoma, up into Mendocino’s western regions and you bump right into Anderson Valley. O.K. you don’t bump into it, you are in it. I just had a friend come back from Navarro Vineyards in Anderson Valley and he brought me back my new favorite $20 Pinot Noir. He just threw it my way to get me off his back so I would stop asking questions about his visit and requesting to see pictures. (Living on the East Coast is sometimes tough on me.) Well it did the trick;

I took the bottle and ran home for my opener. Lucky me. I admit that I have been focusing on the Willamette Valley for Pinot’s in recent months, but this gift was a grand awakening to the wines of Navarro Vineyards. I had one of their whites a long time ago (I don’t remember much) but now find myself on their Pinot bandwagon.
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February 5th, 2010 | Leave a Comment

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